The Darwin Awards Of The Dieting World

Have you ever heard of the Darwin Awards? If you have, you’re probably grinning from ear to ear. If you hadn’t, then you will once I explain it to you. Basically, the Darwin Awards is a collection of stories detailing some of the stupid things people have done that could, or did, get them killed. And it only makes this list if it was a deliberate choice of stupidity on their part.

Since this site is about health and fitness, it would only be appropriate to also have a set of Darwin Awards in this category. However, I will not be discussing individual cases in this post. Rather, we will explore some of the diet fads that have happened in the past which were quickly snuffed out because of their lack of logic. Let’s look at them as relics of the past and ridicule them.

One: The Chewing Diet

This diet originated by a great man by the name of Horace “the Great Masticator” Fletcher. This man purported that if you chew your food until it was essentially almost like liquid, you would desire it less and spit it out rather than eating it. Of course, this is ultimate yuckies.

Two: Five Bite Diet

What you see is what you get, no kidding! This diet supports the idea of having only five bites of food in any meal. A frequent extension of this is to get rid of breakfast entirely. That means in total you only get ten bites of food each day. Unless you are a lark or some lower order organism, ten bites a day will get you nowhere.

Three: Baby Food Diet

Did you know that some people really like eating baby food? It’s true, but those are the minority. Most of us would retch at the idea, including myself, who was once forced to eat it in a challenge. It’s obvious why this fad ended swiftly, right?

Four: Human Choriogonadotropin (HCG)

To one up all of the above, the HCG diet purports that food intake of 500 calories each day plus a daily intravenous dose of the hormone HCG would be sufficient for weight loss. Time to get on the ‘roids, beefcake! Unfortunately, this method is not just useless, it is also unsafe.

Five: Pain Decoys

How do you take attention off your hunger? By focusing on other more pressing physical sensations, of course! One such action that had been tried and proven to fail was stapling one’s ears. Ouchies maximus! And you might end up in an asylum after your hospital visit.

Six: Cotton Balls

An Einstein somewhere suggested that eating cotton balls is a good idea. After all, they will fill up your stomach and do not contain any calories. But seriously?

Seven: Smoking

Literally, smoking! There is some evidence from the past that smoking was associated with slimmer physiques, but that is because of a few reasons covered such as regaining physical sensation of food and the data being old. So don’t do it.

Eight: Worms

Yes, you heard that right. Tapeworms are known to increase one’s appetite because they will live in your digestive system and eat whatever you eat. But come on now, what happens when your intestines get full of tapeworms?

Alright, some of the above are unbelievable, aren’t they? But yep, they have happened before when people desperately want to lose weight quickly using some kind of shortcut. Here at Granite Fitness, we don’t believe in shortcuts. What you need is good information, such as those provided in the Granite Fitness Masterclass, followed by action and lots of hard work. Do it that way, trust me!

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About The Author

Granite Fitness Blog

Mark is an all-rounded guy with dreams, aspirations, and a desire to be a better version of himself. Having conquered obesity, he set-up Granite Fitness to help regular people get in shape and stay healthy. Mark spends his days helping distressed Uni students through difficult situations and studying Christian counselling. He spends his spare time freelancing and running a series of online stores known as the Granite Network with his business partner Atanas. Connect @ http://au.linkedin.com/in/marksptan and check out their other online operations @ http://www.granitework.org